OREANDA-NEWS  On 07 October was announced, that Germany remains one of the key investors in Belarus, with U.S. USD 320 million in investment inflows in 2007, including USD 30 million of FDI, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Tur said during the opening of the second Days of German Economy in Belarus.

“Germany is an essential trade partner of Belarus in Europe, it is the fourth largest trade partner of Belarus. Our mutual trade turnover expanded to U.S. USD 3.5 billion in 2007 from USD 1 billion in 2002. Exports and imports are getting more diversified,” Tur said.

Belarus has about 400 commercial organizations with German capital, of them 190 joint ventures and 150 companies with 100% German capital.

“We accept constructive criticism, but we do not want captious criticism, which has no positive result,” Tur said.

He called on German investors to continue cooperation, adding that over the past few years Belarus had adopted around 30 regulatory acts to improve the country’s business environment. According to Tur, new regulatory acts to step up the securities market, taxation procedures and state property utilization will be adopted soon. Also, it is planned to promote legislation to remove administrative barriers to business in association with the International Finance Corporation.